


The Butterfly Effect

by MaeTree



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Natasha Romanov, Battle of New York (Marvel), Confusion, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Marine Corps, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Original Character, Poor Life Choices, SHIELD, Spies & Secret Agents, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25837633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaeTree/pseuds/MaeTree
Summary: How one choice, made all the way back in the Battle of New York, effects everything.
Relationships: Avengers Team & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. First Move

New York City is chaos incarnate. Every last one of your senses is bombarded with a thousand different things at once. So, really, who can blame Angelica for not realizing that there was a giant-ass wormhole in the sky pouring out aliens? No one, that's who.

Okay, let's recap. Angelica Kinney and her parents had decided that since Angelica had just gotten back from a 11 month long deployment to Afghanistan, it would be great to meet up with them and her siblings and spend some time together. And where else to meet up than the Big Apple?

Yay.

But Angelica guessed that she can't be too bitter, given that going on this cursed family vacation is what led to Angelica meeting her best friends. 

So here they are, in NYC itself. And while she was definitely enjoying her civilian clothes, this was the first time Angelica had been unarmed in almost a year and she was on edge. They had just left the Grand Central Terminal and were headed down the street to a small pizza shop for lunch. 

There was no intro, no prelude. One minute, everything was fine. The next had them watching a UFO speed between buildings, laying down ground fire on the streets.

It was only her months of combat training and experience that allowed Angelica to not freeze like everyone else. Angelica had grabbed her sister's hand and her brother's arm, shoved them both towards her parents and the terminal they had just left.

"Get in the subway. Get below ground. Don't come out until the authorities get to you. Okay?" Angelica made eye contact with her dad. Out of everyone in her family, Angelica knew he would be the most likely to keep a level head and make sure everyone else listened to her instructions. He gave Angelica a firm nod as her mom started crying and reached out to me.

"What about you?" Her scared voice made Angelica want to feel insulted, but the rational part of Angelica knew that no soldier was guaranteed to come home. So Angelica just gave her a small, hopefully comforting smile.

"I'm needed out here Mom."

"No! You don't have to be the hero. Just this once. Please?"

Angelica turned to her sister, tears had already formed in her eyes, and Angelica could feel herself wanting to hide- just this once.

No.

"Lizzie, I am needed out there." her voice was firm. "Now go."

Angelica watched them hurry away for just a second before she turned back to the streets. She had made her choice.

And the butterfly effect had begun.


	2. Of Battles and Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Battle of New York City.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter: ~400 words  
> Second chapter: ~1900  
> Me: This is fine :' )
> 
> Lol dw i'm fine  
> Enjoy!

Most people had already taken cover, save for the few lying ominously on the streets. But Angelica saw movement just a little distance away, her vision clouded by all the dust in the air. She started moving towards it cautiously, not knowing what to expect. She wished she had her guns. Or her combat gear. Or both. But Angelica needed to clear the streets, make sure everyone was safe. 

The attack came from above her. They were ugly creatures, holding glowing weapons that Angelica did not want to feel used against her. It fell directly in front of her, letting out an inhuman screech. Angelica acted on instinct, grabbing the weapon in its hands, shoving it towards the creature's chest before pulling it out of its grasp. 

It was a gun. Not a sort that Angelica was familiar with, but Angelica could figure out the most basic thing with barely a glance.

Shooting.

The creature was dead before it hit the ground. Looking up, Angelica could see almost a dozen more, Angelica ducked for cover, not letting myself get pinned in one spot and returning fire whenever Angelica could. 

Just as Angelica got behind a taxi cab, her eye caught sight of a dark and long object embedded itself in a creature that had almost managed to sneak behind me. Angelica looked to the projectile's source to find a man in tactical gear holding a bow. 

Angelica wasn't even going to question it.

He was firing arrows at an incredible speed, clearing Angelica a path to him.

It took Angelica less than a minute to reach him, vaulting over a mustang to slide down next to him. 

"I don't have time to babysit civilians kids." He didn't even look at Angelica as he spoke.

"I'm not a civilian, sir." Angelica kept her voice even, firing the foreign tech in a rapid pattern, taking down half a dozen creatures as she spoke.

Then he did turn to look at her, giving Angelica a small smile. "Not a civvie, got it. My name is Clint, we are fighting aliens, here is an earpiece," He pulled out what looked like a ring box from his pocket, putting it down right in front of her. "And try to keep up."

Angelica looked up just in time to see him vault over the car they were behind, only to get tackled by the creatures- or aliens?- a moment later. Angelica did her best to cover him, shooting down any aliens that tried to sneak up behind him, but she was distracted by another human. A woman, she had red hair and a tactical suit that clung to her every curve as she took down alien after alien. Angelica did her best to help out from the cover Angelica had, all the while analyzing the fighting patterns of both humans and aliens.

Her gun ran out of ammo just as another human tumbled into view. He was tall, fit and wearing a blue suit and shield that made him look like a Captain America look-a-like. 

Angelica had just begun making her way towards them when the lightning struck. Literally. Lightning appeared out of seemingly nowhere, zapping a bunch of aliens all at once. It was followed shortly after by a body-builder in a bright red cape.

Angelica hurried over, slipping her earpiece on as she walked. Look-a-like dude and red-cape man were talking, Angelica could hear their voices echo from the earpiece, but none of what they were saying made any sense. _Upstairs? Where? Cube? What?_

Another voice entered the conversation, "Thor's right, we’ve got to deal with these guys."

"How do we do that?" Redhead asked.

"As a team." Look-a-like responded.

Angelica really should learn everybody's names.

Angelica tried to catch Clint's eye, but he was busy with his arrows.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Red-cape man -was he the Thor guy?- growled.

Clint didn't even look up from his arrows to respond, "Yeah? Well get in line."

Angelica made eye contact with Redhead, sharing a small smile as Look-a-like cut them both off. 

“Save it. Loki is going to keep this fight focused on us and that’s what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We have Stark up top,” _Of course Iron Man was involved,_ “he’s going to need-” Look-a-like cut himself off as a loud motorbike approached, carrying a scruffy looking man right up to them.

“So, this all seems horrible.” Angelica gave a snort at the unabashed sarcasm in his voice, even as redhead replied.

“I’ve seen worse.” There was something weighty in her voice that made Angelica do a double take, but the newcomer seemed to expect it.

“Sorry.”

“No, we could use a little worse.”

“Stark, we’ve got him.” Look-a-like’s voice cut in, breaking both Redhead and Newcomer out of their little moment. He was either extremely brave ot extremely stupid to ignore the twin glares sent his way as Stark started talking. 

“Tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.”

Seconds later, Iron man came flying around that corner chased by a giant flying alien.

“I-i don’t see how that’s a party.” Redhead seemed to try and break the tension, but it didn’t really help.

“Dr. Banner,” Aha! Another name! “Now would be a really great time to get angry.”

Angelica was horrified to see Dr. Banner walking straight towards the alien monster.

She made a move to start walking towards him, but Clint caught her eye and shook his head. She looked between them both, then to the Leviathan of a monster coming towards them. Indecisiveness froze her for just long enough to see the unassuming doctor transform into- well, a beast.

It stepped forward, towards the monster and gave it one punch on the nose. The whole monster began to crumple and Iron Man gave it a singular missile into its flesh.

Knowing what would happen a second before it did, Angelica dove for cover behind a car. Not even a second later, the monster exploded into fire and smoldering chunks of flesh and metal. 

The world whited out for a moment heat and sound and fiery light. 

It came back into focus with alien screeches and a cool breeze.

Angelica’s legs felt shaky, but she pushed it off. Looking around at all the aliens clinging to the buildings, she felt defiance rise up in her chest. She grabbed a stray piece of crowbar and gave it an experimental swing before nodding. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do. She stood by Clint and Red-cape, shoulder to shoulder, closing the gap in their circle.

“Um, guys?” Redhead brought her focus to the portal with a sharp nod of her head.

“Call it, Captain.” Iron Man’s voice came through the comms.

…Angelica was beginning to think that this wasn’t some rip-off Captain America.

“Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our main priority is containment. Barton-” The maybe-real-probably-fake Captain America cut himself off mid sentence. Angelica spent a good five seconds searching for any imminent threats before realizing that he was staring at her.

And so was everyone else.

Mental faculties left her for a long moment, but Clint just laughed. 

“Oh yeah, I picked up a stray. Military. She’s a damn good shot as well.”

Redhead let out a sigh, “So what’s her name?”

Clint drew up short and gave a sheepish smile, “Um, I kinda- like- forgot to ask?”

Angelica did her best to save him any further embarrassment, stepping up to face the Captain. “Angelica Kinney, 5th Marine Special Operations Regiment, grenadier, Camp Dwier, Afghanistan.”

The Captain paused, looking her over. Angelica knew what he saw. A girl with too short hair and tattoos, covered in dust and grime. 

Nothing impressive, but she held his gaze. She met his eye and showed him that she would fight either way.

He gave a quick nod, a silent stamp of approval, and continued where he left off. “Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.”

Clint turns to Iron Man, “Wanna give me a lift?”

“Clench up, Legolas.” Iron Man grabs some straps on Clint’s back and takes off.

“Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the bastards up.”

Red-cape, who’s name actually was Thor!- gave a firm nod and flew off.

The Captain- Angelica was about 95% sure that he was the real deal by now- turned to both her and Redhead. “The three of us? We stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk?” He turned to the big green guy, raised a finger and said a single word. “SMASH.”

The fighting became a blur after that, Angelica only letting go of her crowbar once the alien blood made it too slick to grab. She then scooped up a long alien spear/gun and continued fighting. 

Time passed fluidly, and Angelica didn’t know how long it was before Redhead spoke up again. “Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal.”

The Captain shook his head, “Our biggest guns couldn't touch it.”

“Well maybe it’s not about guns.” Redhead gestures to the flying aliens overhead, and Angelica’s eyes widen as she understands the other woman’s implications.

“I’ll cover you both, just do what you need to.” Both turned to give Angelica a nod of understanding, the Captain positioning himself with his shield.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yeah. It's gonna be fun.”

Angelica turned to stave off more aliens, laying down a rapid fire before turning back to the Captain.

“You think she can beat whatevers up there on her own?”

The Captain didn’t say anything, but his pained glance and shake of his head was answer enough.

“Awesome. You got it down here?”

“Yeah, I should be good. Are you going up the same way as Nat?”

Another name! Finally.

“Oh hell no.” Angelica was already moving towards the motorbike that Dr. Banner rode in on. Miraculously, it was still standing and started after a quick second. “Stairs are great exercise anyways.”

The Captain gave a tired laugh and wave as Angelica drove the motorcycle in the direction of Stark Tower, coaxing every drop of speed she could get from it.

“Hey, Stark, what level is all the drama at?” She desperately hoped that her little earpiece had a microphone in it and sagged in relief when Tony Stark’s voice came in loud and clear.

“The 90th one should drop you off where you want to be at. The elevators aren’t working, you do know that right?”

“Yep.”

“You sure you can handle it?”

“Well I did the rim-to-rim marathon like, a year ago. Only have gotten better since.”

“Huh. Happy leg day then.”

9 minutes and 53 seconds. That is how long it took for Angelica to run up 90 flights of stairs. The battle was still raging and by the way that Nat was talking to the Dr. Selvig guy, it sounded like she had just arrived as well. 

“Angelica, are you up there yet?” The Captain’s voice startled her out of her reverie as she stood behind the door to the 90th floor. 

“Copy. What’s the objective?”

“Get the staff from Loki, the tall guy with dark hair and a weird-”

“Reindeer helmet.”

“Tony!”

“Am I wrong, Rogers?”

“Ignore that, Angelica. Distract him long enough to let me get the staff, don’t let him touch you with it, and help close the portal. Understand?” Nat’s voice was clear and confident through the earpiece, leaving no room for doubt.

“Yes, ma’am.” Angelica didn’t give herself time to think. She opened the door and stepped through into fresh air and sunlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	3. The End of the Soldier and the Beginning of the Agent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the battle

The view was the first thing she noticed. If they weren't in the middle of a crazy alien invasion, It would have been absolutely stunning. You could see for miles.

The second thing she noticed was the psycho dude with an oversized glowstick.

He was watching her, studying her. Angelica studied him just as blatantly.

“Can I help-”

“You look terrible.”

He really did, with bags under his eyes and pale ashy skin and bright blue eyes that seemed so out of place on his face.

Her blunt statement seemed to catch him off guard, if only for a moment. Then it made him angry. “You insolent mortal. I am a god-”

Angelica saw a subtle flash of red in her peripherals, so she interrupted him again. “Is that with a lowercase ‘g’ or an uppercase?”

He seemed to pull up short at Angelica’s question. “I-I’m really not sure what the difference would be? Why is that a qu-”

“M’kay! Forget about it, no need to monologue -just, nevermind I said anything. Got it?” She didn’t give him any time to respond before she was talking again. “Your name is Loki, right? Sorry, I’m just asking because I really don't see any-” Angelica made a vague gesture with her hands, “Ya’know, reindeer helmets.”

“You’re with Stark.” Loki didn’t phrase it as a question, but Angelica answered anyways.

“Yep! And boy let me tell you, he is quite the handful to work with.”

A faint little “Hey!” came through her earpiece, and she could see Loki’s lips quirk up into a small smirk as if in response. Her blood ran cold at the implications.

“Can you- wait, wait, wait, can you actually hear what they're saying in the earpieces?”

His smirk grew into a grin, “Mortal, I can hear your heartbeat from here. So yes, I can hear your little earpiece and I can most definitely hear Romanoff trying to sneak up behind me.”

Nat froze, ten feet behind the maniac, but Angelica just gave a fatalistic shrug, “Okey-doodles.”

She didn’t give him time to reply as she grabbed a chair and threw it at his face. He looked surprised for all of a split second before grinning dodging the kitchen seat. He looked like he was about to say something, but Angelica moved in. She fought close up, too close for him to effectively use his staff, laying down punches and kicks in an effective rhythm. 

It only took a few seconds for Loki to start fighting back, but as soon as he did, Angelica knew she was hopelessly outmatched. He grabbed her left arm and pulled it out, leaving her exposed to his hand wrapping around her throat. He pulls her in close, lifting her off the ground.

“You are a spirited little human. I will enjoy having you serve me.”

Angelica was beginning to see black spots in her vision, but the sharp, cold tip of Loki’s scepter brought her back to reality. She fought her hardest to struggle free as blue filled the edges of her vision. “You- You look ever worse, up close.”

The tips pressed harder into her chest, but just as she could feel her mind going almost completely numb, her vision was filled by black? 

No, it was Nat, her legs around Loki’s throat. He had let Angelica go in favor of pulling the other woman off his shoulders. 

Angelica looked around furiously for any sort of weapon and rushed to grab the best thing for the job. A fire poker. A pained screech brought her attention back to Loki, who had just thrown Nat across the room.

Angelica ran at him, poker in each hand and began to fight. It was clear he was much less experienced fighting with a staff, but he was still miles better than her. She wracked her mind in a futile effort for anything she could do, only to realize what was needed. Giving him some distance between them, she let him jab the spear towards her- and hit. 

The metal was cold, painfully so, but she couldn’t afford to be distracted. The staff was buried in the flesh of the left side of her chest, having skidded off her third rib. Ignoring the pain, angelica clamped down her left arm and twisted her torso, yanking the staff out of Loki’s hands. He moved closer to grab for it, but Angelica brought both of her fire pokers down on his temples.

Once, twice, three times. Maybe he wasn’t human, but that was enough to bring anyone to their knees and Loki proved no different.

“Nat!” Her voice was startlingly loud, but the redhead stumbled over to her, “take the staff. Do what you need to. I will finish down here.”

They both knew that when Loki came too, he would kill her in a heartbeat, but Nat nodded anyways, took the staff and sprinted up the stairs. 

Angelica stood in front of the door to the stairway and turned back to survey the room. 

Only to find herself face-to-chest with a very angry Loki.

“I will kill you, slowly. Painfully. I will lay out every fear you have-” he was cut off by a roar and Angelica was never so happy to see a giant green monster in her life. 

The monster sent him flying with a single punch, but Loki rolled up to face him, angier than Angelica had yet to see him.

“Enough! You are, all of you are beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied-”

The Hulk cut him off, grabbing Loki by his cape and whipping him around like a rag doll.

Satisfied with his work, the Hulk began to stomp off.

Angelica was trying to hold in her laughter, but when Hulk turned and delivered his final insult, “Puny god.” she lost it. Peals of laughter were ripped out of her, making her side feel like it was on fire, but she kept laughing anyways.

The Hulk turned to her slowly as if not expecting her to be real, so Angelica just met his eye. “Good going buddy.”

He gave a monster grin and bounded off.

“Alrighty then. Hey, Stark? Do you got any First-Aid kits around here?”

“- I’m a little- shit!- a little busy, kid. Ask JARVIS.”

“Who’s JARVIS?” But Stark wouldn’t respond. Instead, a voice came through on the overhead speakers.

“I believe Mister Stark would be referring to me, Ma’am. My name is JARVIS, and I am the AI that helps run this building and all of Mr. Stark’s suits.”

“Oh, well, neat! Could you maybe direct me to the nearest First-Aid kit, please?” talking to the AI was  _ weird _ Angelica just didn’t know where to look.

“Of course, it will be directly behind the bar to you right.”

“Awesome. Neat-o. Uhm, very cool.” Angelica did her best to make it over to the bar, but she collapsed halfway, falling to her knees.

“This is rich.” Angelica’s head whipped up at Loki’s voice. It was wheezy and bruised and seemed to have lost most of its bite, but she wasn’t taking any chances. “One of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, unable to walk a measly five meters to a medical kit. You truly are strong.”

“Okay, first off,  _ sir _ , I never said I was one of  _ Earth’s Mightiest Heroes _ or whatever. That is not my job. Secondly, I can walk to the medkit, I just need a second to catch my breath. Got it?”

“By all means, Lady, do what you must.” He was mocking her, she just knew it.

_ Bastard _ . 

Angelica stood up again, there were voices coming from the earpiece, but her head was ringing too loud to understand what they were saying. She managed another three steps before collapsing to the ground. 

Or, she would have, if not for the weird green mist that surrounded her and carried her over to that bar. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Angelica quickly grabbed the First-Aid kit and pulled out gauze and medical tape. 

Bandaging up her own stab wound was beyond painful. She didn’t even try to cover up her gasps and whimpers.

When she finally finished, she started to pay attention to the earpiece.

“-not slowing down.”

Silence. 

A roar. So sudden and so loud that Angelica fell off the barstool she was sitting on.

“What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?” Stark’s voice filled Angelica’s ear and she and the Captain both let out tired laughs.

“We won.” Captain sounded about as tired as Angelica felt.

“Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it.” Tony Stark was rambling and for some reason, it was beyond comforting.

“We’re not finished yet.” Thor’s voice was grim.

“And then shawarma after.”

They fell silent for a bit and Angelica managed to turn towards Loki, who had apparently fallen unconscious. 

“You lose.”

After that, it was a blur. Thor put Loki in Asgardian handcuffs because, apparently they were the actual dudes from mythology, and put his hammer on him to pin him in place. A super-secret government organization named SHEILD showed up to take both Loki’s glow stick and a blue cube they called the Tesseract.

Introductions were made all around; Clint was Clint Barton, a special SHIELD agent, Nat was Natasha Romanov, a spy/assassin also with SHIELD, the Captain was in fact Steve Rogers, who had apparently been frozen in ice for seventy years, and Dr. Banner was Bruce Banner who could turn into a rage monster called the Hulk.

And then Tony Stark himself insisted that Angelica join them for shawarma. They were all dirty and tired, the food was way too greasy, and Loki was tied up outside, but there was a sense of camaraderie between them that made it pleasant. 

And then, they got on a flying air base- which, by the way, was completely crazy- and got to get cleaned up. An agent named Maria Hill helped get Angelica stitched up and into a new set of clothes, and it seemed like all of SHIELD was trying to recruit her, which was honestly very tempting.

The next day was a departure for everyone. Thor was taking both Loki and the cube Tesseract thingy to Asgard, Tony and Dr. Banner were off to go science! their little hearts out, Steve Rogers was headed off to DC with SHIELD, and Natasha and Clint were not telling. 

As for Angelica? She had found out that her family was safe and headed back home- she had spent over two hours on the phone the night before convincing them that yes, she was alright and no, they didn’t need to storm any governmental organizations, thank you very much.

SHIELD was doing its best to try and recruit her, and she wasn’t planning on saying no. Back with the Marines, she wouldn’t be back in combat for at least another six months. Six months of desks and paperwork and politics. 

With SHIELD, she would be able to go on missions one months after the doctors clear her.

Her mind was made up and three days after Thor’s departure, Angelica was no longer a Marine, but a SHIELD agent. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Comments and kudos make my day! But so does criticism! Because it shows me how much ya'll care!!!


End file.
